By Ana Billotti
Round Table web producer
Frederick County commissioner Billy Shreve announced his proposal to shut down the Walkersville Public Library and move it next door into the Walkersville Middle School last week.“It perplexes me that we have one library at Walkersville Middle School and another library across the parking lot,” Shreve said, “That’s two libraries next to each other. Walkersville is supposed to get a new library. We can put the money in the school and that would become our new library,” according to an article published by Gazette.net.
What is perplexing is not why Shreve proposed this plan, but how he thinks this is even possible. Frederick County Public Schools clearly states in their handbook, “All visitors are required to register at the main office upon arrival and may be required to wear an identification badge while on school property. A building administrator may limit or refuse visitor access to school property to ensure student or employee safety or confidentiality or to minimize interruption. Persons who enter school buildings or grounds without reporting to the office or who disturb or interfere with school activities will be considered unauthorized and will be dealt with as trespassers under the law.”
Public libraries are designed for the public to use; they do not prohibit people from entering the building unless they have been banned for previously breaking library policies.
In order for a public library to open up in a school setting, FCPS’ policy would need to change to allow the public in without a fuss. This would create an unsafe school environment and cause students to encounter citizens from the public that their parents may otherwise refrain from having them meet.
If Shreve’s plan goes through, it will create a dangerous school environment for the middle school students, as well as a disruption to their school for the very fact that they will have different members from the community showing up during the school day as they try to use the library to learn.
Another reason a public library cannot and should not be moved into a school library is the different reading levels which the library needs to provide for.
Middle school libraries largely focus their collection of books and media for the age that they are serving: males and females between the ages of 11 to 13. If the public library was to be moved into the middle school, the school would then need to provide a much more extensive collection of books; most of which would not be age appropriate for the students that are officially attending the school.
FCPS, in addition, has many websites blocked on their school computers; this too would need to change if the Walkersville Public Library were to become a part of the Walkersville Middle School.
FCPS will be forced to unban all websites in order to provide and meet the needs of the general public, many of whom frequent the library for the sole purpose of using the computers.
Furthermore, if the libraries are combined, it will ultimately result in job loss for either school media specialists or public librarians.
“School librarians are trained and skilled in teaching students how to find, evaluate and use information and they collaborate with teachers in meeting local curriculum and state and national standards for information skills. [While] public librarians are trained and skilled to provide, information, collections, services and programs for people of all ages with a diverse range of interests. They assist those seeking information in all fields including health, law, business, and consumer issues,” according to a statement written by New Jersey Library Association.
Shreve’s plan was made with best intentions and had a clear focus: save taxpayers’ dollars, but his plan is unsafe, not well thought out and will cause more harm and hassle than good. Shreve needs to visit a public library and then visit a school library and see for himself that, although they are both “libraries,” they are not the same and cannot, as he thinks, be put together.
